Posted - 12/18/2009 : 5:56:14 PM A friend did me a huge favor, saved me nearly $2000 so I thought I would thank her with a knitted afghan. I've seen the Noro colors and I love the look of it so I ordered some for the thank you afghan. It arrived today and I anxiously ripped into the box and quickly knitted up a swatch. Immediatley I hated it. It's coarse and scratchy. I washed my swatch and it improved only slightly. I'm now knitting another swatch with two strands to see if I can save it for felted slippers or something. At this point, the color be damned, I don't like it.

After the fact I looked up Clara's review of it and I wish I had done so before I forked over $150 for it. I've learned my lesson.

I can return it, of course, I'm just wondering if there's any good use for this yarn.

Consuelo

20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)

Zoomom

Posted - 01/31/2013 : 10:08:00 AM I made a pair of Noro socks and love the colours, but hated the texture until after a couple of washes. It softened up. But they wore out really quickly, and this Noro I bought was supposed to be meant for socks. I was disappointed.

Hand knit socks rock.

lucybug

Posted - 06/19/2012 : 07:22:26 AM A couple of years ago I made a lizard (or some other reptile) afghan out of silk garden. I LOVE the colors but the yarn had lots of imperfections and knots plus, as other have said it is itchy. I also hated the pattern -- all short rows -- to make it wavy. Several people had said it was addictive and they kept making more afghans but it is one of the few yarns and patterns that I really dislike and will never use again. I guess there is no middle ground on Noro.

Deborah Tomasello

Posted - 06/15/2012 : 04:43:05 AM KnitPicks Chroma. Looks pretty worked up into a shawl, for instance, but it's h-e-double toothpicks to work with--splits...just yucky. Oh, and I am not a Noro fan either, although I love the projects others make and I keep buying the stuff!

DogCatMom

Posted - 05/31/2012 : 6:40:34 PM After a hiatus of approx. 15 years, I was able to return to yarnwork in January 2008. I had given away all of my yarn in the early '90s, when carpal tunnel syndrome mandated that I choose between my hobbies and my livelihood....

One of the first yarns I looked at in the LYS when I began to get re-acquainted with yarn was a Noro. The colors looked interesting, so I picked up the skein. It felt weird immediately. I took a GOOD, close look at it.

Bits of plants, twigs, broken stems, who knows what were embedded in the yarn. For the price Noro was (is) charging, there was no way on Earth that I was taking this stuff home to work with. I almost couldn't believe that it had been processed (you know: scoured, carded, combed, spun, dyed, skeined) and that all this...um..."crud" was still there. Bleah. I left that skein in the store and haven't bought a single one. That much more for Noro cultists, I guess, but they can have it.

Since then, I've become more familiar with the various qualities of fleeces available for purchase. On a per-ounce/per-gram basis, the fleeces are by far more affordable, and even custom hand dyers are competitive with Noro's prices if you're looking for weed-free yarn.

I haven't spun enough *good* two-ply yet to get a quote, but if I can spin plant-free yarn from plant-free roving that hasn't been chemically treated, why can't Noro?

DCM

Ceil

Posted - 01/16/2012 : 7:53:48 PM I just felted some Kureyon. It felts fine, but took over an hour in these parts (Denver).

Ceil(Ravelry: ceilr)Time is never a factor when joy is involved.

lizknit

Posted - 01/12/2012 : 01:51:47 AM The Kureyon is great to felt with. I made this Booga bag a few years ago.

Posted - 12/16/2011 : 08:29:56 AM I made the Lady Eleanor shawl with Noro silk garden, I loved working with it and it turned out beautiful. There is a picture of it at my etsy store. http://www.etsy.com/shop/thegiftoffiberI have used other Noro yarns that were scratchy and difficult to work with but I love the silk garden and I don't think you can beat the colors. I may just have received a good lot.

jetesf

Posted - 12/12/2011 : 5:22:56 PM I'm so glad I saw this thread. I'm a new knitter (started in May) and am just starting to buy some better yarns. I love the colors of Noro yarns and put some Silk Garden on my wish list to make a scarf. It sounds like Silk Garden is one of the safer choices of Noro yarns.

A long time ago I knitted a scarf out of Noro Kureyon. The knots in the skeins drove me crazy and the yarn was so scratchy that I decided not to knit with it anymore. This week I took a crochet class for a cowl that showcases variegated yarns: the sample was made out of Kureyon but I decided to be smart (hah!) and picked Silk Garden instead thinking that it would be softer. There was only one knot per skein this time but the little "threads" in the yarn are really putting me off. I don't mind a rustic look (like tweed or a good farm yarn) but as someone said, this is more like floor sweepings...

Posted - 03/09/2011 : 6:50:26 PM The LYS used Noro for a beginner felted bag class. Terrible to knit with, but I felted it to make a nice bowl for yarn snippets.

Used Noro again for the "entrelac scarf" and could not stand it. So many knots per skein. Some yardage between knots was a mere 8 inches. Good for Noro, bad for knitters.

No thanks. Will not be purchasing again. I do not want 24 knots per skien. Too wasteful.

lella

Posted - 03/02/2011 : 4:30:49 PM I'm knitting the fronts and sleeves of a Silk Garden sweater for my daughter. She chose the yarn, a Christmas present, VERY expensive from a tony shop, then she knit the back but ran out of time to finish it.

I will try to be kind here...

I just do not like Noro Silk Garden, and will probably seek an alternative if I ever knit this pattern again. Matching this yarn is crazy, absolutely crazy making (!), and I can see why they recommend dry cleaning on the tags because what I have doesn't seem balanced well or spun well.

It's like a beautiful, evil, yarn that drags you in with the color, and eats your brain alive. I've swatch/knit off three balls trying to find a match for the second front piece. And yes, the knots, and yes, the sweepings off the floor quality of it. To me, it looks like my own beginners yarn; it's charming but no other redeeming qualities, other than the softness from the Cashmere, and the play of the colors.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

sgoldfried

Posted - 03/02/2011 : 06:39:44 AM hii have knitted with noro and it is roughbut the colors are really beautifuli usually make scarfs or shawlsit ripped my hands to pieces so i started knitting the noro with asilky yarn throughoutit knits up beautiflynow you cant knit socks or sweatersbut for shawls a scarfs it comes out very nicelysylvia

Janadanu

Posted - 03/01/2011 : 1:57:33 PM I wish I'd been a member here and had read this thread before I bought a whole bunch of this stuff. Lovely colours I think, but...

Kureon- Harsh and overly fuzzy. Weak. I gave it a slight tug on a join, and was gobsmacked when the yarn just parted. That was no fun. Didn't see any knots...in this one.

Chirumen- KNOTS! Oh good grief, here a knot, there a knot, everywhere a knot, knot, and that was a bummer. Also some weird raggy stuff that I had to trim out.

Silk Garden - What's the first thing I find, 6 inches in to the skein? A knot. What a surprise. I'll use it to make the project, which calls for it, I'm prepared for lumber and other detritus, as well as more knots. But I'm knot impressed.

I do like the colours. it's a shame the quality isn't there. Especially considering what I paid for it.

azblueskies

Posted - 05/10/2010 : 12:07:47 PM I have some Noro I've been working with....no knots but I hate the colors! I've been toying with overdying it. Anyone ever tried that with this yarn?

azblue------------------------------------------------------------------So much to learn, so little time.

mathiemom

Posted - 05/10/2010 : 10:26:57 AM I do think that there's considerable variation between types of Noro in terms of softness. I recently made a Lady Eleanor Shawl out of Silk Garden Chunky, and the colorway was oh-so-beautiful. Everywhere I take that shawl (even when I was working on it), I'd get compliments from complete strangers. BUT . . . I did get the vegetal matter. I agree with those who said that it's part of the Noro experience, and that you just have to decide if you can tolerate it or not. But the thing that made me really annoyed is that there were MANY knots, and the colors attached after the knots were completely out of sequence. This meant that I had to frequently finesse things (for example, start a whole new ball of yarn and maybe working in the rest of the partial ball at some later point) to avoid major color pools. Very annoying. I can tolerate a lot from a yarn, but this drove me bananas, especially considering the price of this yarn.

Posted - 03/11/2010 : 07:38:12 AM Lanea, The Stay-Put Wrap is an incredibly easy pattern, but it might be a good idea to buy extra yarn. As written, it's way too small. I'm on the tall side and had to cast on additional stitches. The back is too small, so I had to make it a FEW INCHES longer! Then, I had to lengthen the wrap. I'm very pleased with the Kochoran, and I will post a picture when it's finished.Juanita

Lanea

Posted - 03/11/2010 : 06:26:11 AM Juanita, at least you know those ends will stay put once you weave them in. I know it's cold comfort, but it would make me feel better.

I'd love to see your wrap when it's finished. It is on my to-knit list, though I hadn't really considered anything but a solid for it. I bet yours is gorgeous!

Posted - 03/10/2010 : 7:13:19 PM Oh, my goodness, Juanita. I can just imagine how much "fun" you'll have weaving all those ends in. What a crazy / cool idea to cut out the colors you don't like. Your friend was gutsy. Thanks for sharing.

Consuelo"Travel is fatal to prejudice" Mark Twain

Coolj

Posted - 03/10/2010 : 1:11:15 PM A few years ago I mentioned on KR how my friend, Marian, left me her stash when she passed away. Marian was a delightful person and dearly loved bright, colorful yarns. In her stash, there was a large canvas bag chock-full with some small, some large balls of Noro's Kochoran. I had been looking for something to make the Stay-Put Wrap by Mags Kandis, and the Kochoran gauge would work. IMHO, Kochoran is a softer and better behaved yarn than Kureyon or some of the others and was exactly what I had in mind. When I really dug through the bag, I realized what Marian had done--she had simply cut out the colors she didn't particularly like and separated them from those she liked. There must have been 35 balls of Kochoran in there!

I've been working on the wrap off and on for a year, and I picked it up again last week. I'm almost finished with the sleeves, but I still have about 40 ends to weave in! It has truly been a labor of love, and I grin whenever I think of Marian cutting out all those unwanted colors.